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Governments would like their people to become
"better" citizens. And so they wonder if they could use audiovisual
tools to "improve" them.
Students, who would like to get a job in the media
sector of activity, wonder if they can learn the method: "how to use audiovisual
technologies in order to communicate effectively?"
Are you reading this manual with the same question in
mind?
Well! let’s begin with the
analysis of this fundamental question.
Later on, we will consider the possible answers.
There is a common way of tackling our problem: it
consists in splitting the issue in more elementary questions, like:
· What are the "elements" of communication that I need to consider in order to master the whole process?
· What are the "factors" influencing the effectiveness of communication?
· What are the "parts" and the "links" of the audio-visual discourse?
These questions spring from the same desire to exploit
the power of audiovisual tools.
So the common approach is to look at human
communication as something that can be mastered by applying a particular
technique.
The effort is to discover the communication patterns;
the aim is to control the communication process.
Simplifying, we could summarize the philosophy of the
common approach to audiovisual education in this way:
The approach adopted by this manual is different: we
look at communication as a dialectical interaction between free persons.
In our perspective, the objective of communication is
not to "convince", but to "integrate".
What is the difference between the two approaches?
The scholars adopting the common approach try to
discover and isolate that "communicative power" with a process of
analysis of the "facts" of communication.
First, they differentiate the "message" from
the "context"; then the "message" is disassembled in
"content" and "form"; and later on, the content is split
into "ideas" and the form into "elements"; …and so on.
We think that this common way of tackling the question
is ill conceived.
We also claim that the solutions provided by this
method are defective: trying to solve the question of communication by
illustrating its "components" leads to arbitrary abstractions, to
incoherent generalizations and to unrealistic expectations.
In fact, after you have learned to analyze the
"parts" of an "efficacious communication", do you really
learn how to communicate efficaciously?
NO!
Because the power of a composition results from its
whole unity.
And this is true for a book, for a newspaper, for a
film, for a painting, for a video cassette, for a network, etc.
Therefore we claim that those who want to teach how
to master "scientifically" the communication process do not fulfill
their promises.
Because the "power" is not found in any
single isolated element, nor in the way of assembling these elements.
When we re-assemble the parts of the composition that
we have separated in its analysis, we will find that the meaning has changed
and that the original power of the composition has been lost.
Why?
Because communication is not effective when its
elements are sophisticated, but when the message is authentic and original.
It is authentic when the relationship between the two
sides of communication is fair.
It is original when the author(s) of the messages are
creative.
The aspiration of discovering a formal model of
communication (which can be imitated by those who want to be efficacious) is a
misplaced effort: because composition requires creative thinking.
Standardization and imitation of formal models can be used
in technical performances. But creativity, by definition, is an act of freedom.
It is an expression of the personality and transcends pre-conceived patterns.
Those who search for the "elements" and the
"patterns" of communication claim that only few communication acts
are really creative. Originality – they say - belongs to a particular
kind of communication: the "artistic" or "poetic" styles.
Ordinary communication follows standard patterns, while artistic communication
transcends them.
In this manual, we claim that communication is
never a technique but is always an art.
To discuss the
"principles of didactic communication" is to define the concepts of
"communication" and "didactics" and to limit the scope of
their scientific study.
Here, like in
other fields of other human sciences, knowledge has proceeded along a "spiraling"
line: theories on communication have evolved within the dialectical
confrontation of two opposite approaches.
The opposition between these
two perspectives will acorganization us through this manual.
Therefore, the definition of
the two conflicting fields cannot be "historical"; it is rather a
"methodological" distinction.
We will call the "humanistic approach", that
perspective which looks at communication as an "art"; and the
"semantic approach" that perspective which looks at communication as
a "technique".
The confrontation between the two perspectives will
constitute the pattern upon which this manual will proceed.
While illustrating this dialectical dispute, we are
not neutral, since we agree with the "humanistic" school.
The supporters of the "semantic" schools
would claim that a scholar should be impartial in exposing facts and opinions. The
supporters of the other field, instead, claim that impartiality is impossible,
because each explanation is, at the same time, a judgment.
The "semantic" approach aims at discovering
a structure.
The "humanist" approach considers structures
as abstract models and states that one cannot find "power" in
disassembling the "facts" of the communication process.
How, then, can this power be found? What does the
humanistic approach say concerning the possibility of learning "how to
communicate"?
It all depends upon what we mean by "learning an
art".
A technical competence is learnt when one acquires the
ability to apply certain models with the proper tools.
But we say that communication is not a technique, but
an art; and art is different from a technique because it is based on creation
not on imitation.
Then the real question is: can creativity be
learnt?
Yes it can. Or rather, it can be cultivated.
Because creativity is spontaneous; since it is an
essential element of humanity.
Like freedom, creativity qualifies the human being;
and so it belongs, by nature, to all of us.
So how can we cultivate our spontaneous creativity?
With this question, we enter the "didactic"
field and we see how "communication" and "didactics" are
connected concepts.
In fact, in this manual we will treat the question of
"how to teach", that is equal, from a humanistic point of view, to
"how to help someone cultivate her/his own personality".
The term "education" (from the Latin e-ducere)
indicates a process of "leading out": to let one’s own personality
emerge and af organization itself.
In this manual, we will look at the principles of
didactics and so we will look at "what is- to teach", a question,
directly based on the question of "what is education".
But how to avoid the temptation of imposing one’s
models on somebody else?
How can a teacher "communicate" a way to
take out from within oneself one’s own values?
We can also say that teaching is a process of
"empowerment".
A didactic activity therefore includes the
transmission of the capacity to af organization oneself.
So education, at the same time, includes and
transcends technical training: we will therefore face the question of defining
both the terms: education and training.
In this manual, we will proceed in defining the
concepts that we have now introduced.
Any definition develops from other definitions: these
conceptual connections will be the thread through which this manual will
proceed.
Each definition is at the same time the arrival point
and the departure point of the logical process.
So each definition sets the ground for confronting the
different points of view.
This manual has been prepared for an interactive
fruition.
Each page has been written so that the reader can
proceed from one definition to the following one, or read more explanations on
the same definition or see the different opinions on the same issue.
In fact, we felt the need of practicing what we were
speaking about. And so this manual is an ggapplication of Internet for Distance
Learning. Even a theoretical subject, like the one we are facing here, can be
made approachable through a combination of visual and textual languages.
We now have technology that allows us to send messages
in an audiovisual format throughout the world in real time, to an indefinite
number of receivers. The barriers of time and space therefore are no longer
obstructions to the transmission of knowledge.
But in order to use the new tools of communication for
an authentic sharing of knowledge, we need to look critically to the way
communication is shared. The purpose of this manual is to help the formation of
this critical faculty.
The principles of didactic communication
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